The Red Tide
Made by QC ' ' The Red Tide are organisms which are sometimes in the ocean which produces toxins and leads to death. I've also exaggerated the Red Tide to make it more dramatic. 'Night.' Under the ocean night is a beautiful work of art only SeaWings can see and experience. Plankton glowed with bioluminescence and a peaceful family of SeaWings were sleeping on the bottom of the sandy sea floor. A father was sleeping with his mate and his dragonets all curled up beside him. His eyes opened slowly as they adjusted to the dark ocean and his night vision kicked in. He stood up trying not to arouse the sand around him and his sleeping mate and dragonet. He tasted something strange. Slowly, he swam to the reef to see if it was from a kill and he was just tasting something from a fish. He flicked his tongue in and opened and closed his gills. Nothing strange here, but he still tasted a hint of that weird smell. Maybe it was just him. He was about to swim back to his family when he looked up to see two moons shining into the water. Something was not right. The moons were red! In curiosity and fear the SeaWing swam up to see why the moons looked red. That was a mistake. Before he reached the surface particles hit his face and were invested into his gills. "Grrawrraaa" He yelled trying to get rid of the particles. He felt like he was choking on them. Now he started to panic and swam to the surface and flew out like an angry shark. "AhhhAAA!" He screamed as he breathed normal air trying to take the particles out of this gills, throat and eyes. When his eyes were clear he looked up to the moons. They were perfectly fine, but when he looked down at the water it was crimson red. Not only that but the red stretched for miles and miles around the ocean. What was this madness? Was it bad? Was it good? He didn't want to find out. His eyes were stinging and he can barely see. Whatever it was wasn't good for his eyes. He needed to warn his mate and dragonet. He dove back into the putrid water and only breathed and opened his eyes when he felt cleaner water. He tasted and the water tasted stronger of this strange red water. He started swimming back to his family his eyes getting a little better with the salt water. "Tsunami, Shrimp. We need to go" He said in aquatic as he shoved his family awake. "What is it, hun?" ''Tsunami asked swimming and stretching her wings. "''There is something in the water and I don't think it's good." '' "Daddy, what is that taste?" "We need to get out of here" ''The father said ignoring Shrimp's protest. Tsunami nodded her head and the three started swimming toward the surface. "Close your eyes and hold your breath. These things can get stuck in your gills and eyes." ''He said. He didn't want to tell them that it already went inside of him not wanting them to worry more. The flew out of the water flapping their wings once airborne. Shrimp looked at his father, ''"Ewww, this stuff is all over me!" ''Shrimp said still in aquatic. he didn't master speaking normally yet. "Shrimp, come here so that I can clean you" Tsunami said soothingly and started whipping off the red water while hovering above the dark red ocean. "What is this Sardine?" "I... I don't know." He said solemnly. "Where will we go?" "To the Palace. There must be some explanation Queen Mako has." Morning. Queen Mako. Daughter of Queen Lapis. My mother died at the age 211, my grandmother died at the age 246 which was not the ideal ages to die as a Queen. It'd usually be around 100 or so years. But her and her mother and herself were guilty of letting their mothers age and die in battle or some heroic act. Mako had to wait 52 years because she didn't want to kill her mother herself. Lapis seemed to understand this and gladly only had to heirs. Her, and her sister. Her sister was a puny SeaWing named Tempest. She actually thought Tempest would become Queen and named her after a storm created by the gods. "Whatever those are" Lapis said that the gods were a SeaWing myth which they created back in The Scorching. They were powerful deities which roamed Pyrriah and created storms, weather, life... etc. But after the Scorching dragons have moved on to science and THAT is what made me Queen. Unlike my mother and my sister I decided to follow the footsteps on my grandmother Clam. I never met her but I've read her novels and stories to know a lot about her adventures and scientific discoveries. Lapis didn't care for this science stuff and just wanted peace in the Sea Kingdom. For 100 or so years there was peace thanks to mom. Tempest didn't care about anything and was just like mother. I've been Queen now for 3 years and it's a hard job! Seriously, all those things are tiring, but thanks to Clam's mate Shearwater he has helped her get other dragons to do the work to help her with. I made my sister in charge of the food supply. For some reason she loves food but doesn't seem to eat a lot of it making her pretty skinny. For 3 years I was lucky! No problems no troubles and I can continue with studying. I'm usually in the summer palace since we have more scrolls on land. I was on my throne and my beautiful palace made by my past old relative Albatross reading a scroll called "Respiration in Plants" when suddenly a guard came distracting my wonderful reading. "Wait" I said annoyingly. What was up with dragons distracting me when they see I have more important things to do? "But your majesty, it's important." I said wait Puffy. ''I really liked calling him that. ''"But your majesty this is an emergency." "Osmosis... water... OK DONE. Now what was it Puffy?" "This SeaWing here named Sardine has come from the west side of the Sea Kingdom." I looked him up and down. Huh. A dragon who probably had no job and no contribution to my kingdom. What did he want? Maybe this was important. Sigh... if only I had my grandmother's skills of figuring out who this may be just by looking at him, but I didn't so I had to do it the hard way. "What do you want?" I said rather annoyed. "There is something coming this way your majesty. It's this weird red water and I don't think it's good." ... "You call me here just because of some red water you-" Something popped into my head. A case long ago from Lapis' rule. I've read something in a scroll about red water near the Mud Kingdom's delta. It was very harmful to the fish and dragons avoided it just to be sure. "How big was it?" I asked. "I don't know. It was as far as the eye can see." "Interesting, interesting." I jumped off my throne and quickly got a peace of paper, starting to doodle the Sea Kingdom. "Can you draw an estimate of how big it is compared to the Sea Kingdom?" "I- I- I'm sorry your majesty. I never even seen a map of the Sea Kingdom before." ''Pathetic I said and jumped back up on my throne and started asking questions. "Where did you come from?" "Somewhere west." "Did you live near islands?" "No" "How long did it take you to fly/ swim here?" "We flew, and it took one day." "Twenty-four hours?" "Excuse me?" "Did it take twenty-four hours to fly here?" "What are hours?" I sighed in my mind and tried not to show my frustration. Mother said that no Queen should do that. "Was it as long as one night one day?" "Yes yes yes... about." With my clues I tried to guess where the red water was located at. "Not in intercept with the islands. Must be coming from here." I said pointing to a spot on the map. "And according to the MudWings it came fairly quickly depending on the current speed. So it might come very soon." I put down the paper and went to Sardine. Puffer was sniffing him strangely and I gave him a glare to stop it. But he said in aquatic, "He smells strange." '' I tried to smell him while talking, "I want you to take me to the area. Do you have any other family?" Yes, he did smell strange. "Yes, my mate and my dragonet." "They can stay here, we'll look after them." Sardine shifted looking like he didn't feel comfortable. Dawn. We left at midnight which is fine for us SeaWings since we can see in the dark and I usually stayed up late anyway. Sardine seemed tired and his stench was killing me as we flew. What was that smell? It didn't smell like anything I'd ever smelled. At dawn we came to the red water. It was massive! Really big. "Oh" I said rather shocked. I kept on flying. "Where are we going?" Sardine swerved toward me bring with him his stench. I swerved away to stay clear of it. "To the islands." And sure enough, my predictions were right and I was proud of myself, even though I didn't tell anyone about them. I was about to land on the shore but then smelled and saw the carnage. Rotten dead fish, with the same smell Sardine has. "Just like in the Mud Kingdom. Dead fish coming to shore." "Can it affect dragons?" Sardine said with a hint of panic in his voice. "I don't know yet. This needs more investigation. And THAT means more scientists." Afternoon. For days I set off to talk with the Biologists in Pyrriah and invited them to a meeting in my Summer Palace. Scientists from all tribes except the NightWings came. NightWings never indulged in the other tribe's problems. "When can we go? I want to get some samples!" a young SandWing said flexing her wings and holding some glass jars. "Mako Mako!" A MudWing cried but I never recognized him. "I'm Sulfur and these are my siblings Swamp, Crocodile and Hickory. They all nodded to me. Sulfur seemed to be the Bigwings. "Me and my siblings are proud to join you. We're experts on Ecology and this is interesting but sad." "Yes, fish dyeing left and right is really bad for the ecosystem." Crocodile said sadly. "Mm hmm, this can be really bad for the SeaWings." Hickory added. I nodded, kind of shy. "Mako, when are we leaving?" a crimson colored SkyWing asked. "How many fish were dead?" "Were whales among them?" "OKAY, OKAY. We're going we're going. But no fishing on the way and no swimming. We don't know how bad this is." They left in a big colorful group of dragons with Mako in the lead. She was glad the Queens all agreed to let their Scientists to this event. Sulfur flew beside me "I heard about this in the Mud Kingdom they said it was because of the spores of some fungi. They were toxic and we evacuated the MudWings in the area." I nodded. "Hopefully it won't go that far into SeaWing territory." "Agreed, or else you may be in big trouble." I knew he was just stating it but inside she was shivering and worried for her kingdom. What would happen if this got to the palace? I didn't want to think about it. Suddenly, the ocean underneath the dragons turned red. "Alright, you can start to take your samples and observations. If you want to see the island follow me." Several dragons dived down or hovered above the water writing on tablets or scrolls. I soon landed on a palm tree along with the other scientists. Sulfur stayed with me along with his siblings. "Let's estimate the dead fish." Sulfur ordered. I went off and saw Sardine scratching his scales. "How are you doing Sardine?" I asked as she landed beside him on a tree branch. "Fine, your majesty... it's just that my scales itch irritably." I looked and saw a hint of redness in his scales. "Well you've been scratching them. Don't worry!" I patted Sardine gently trying not to sniff in the order he carried. Mako knew though, she knew that the fungi were toxic and could have a bad affect on him. Twilight. All the scientists brought their research back to the island and that would be their base for a couple of days. A fire was burning in a sandy clearing a MudWing made. Crocodile and Hickory were cooking the meat and a RainWing found some fruit for the group. "I wish we can eat the fish." I said irritably. They couldn't eat the fish because of the fungus and how it can intoxicate the food. "I think the SeaWing should evacuate!" A grumpy IceWing said glaring at me. ''Huh, what did I do? "Well that's Queen Mako's decision." Crocodile said. '' "In my observations I saw that it didn't go that deep into the water so they can swim below it." "It might not even reach all the way to the palace or the living areas." "True, but you're never sure." "Fellow scientists! Please... let's just enjoy our dinner and eat." Sulfur said and staring at me. I smiled thanking him. I gnawed at the giant seed of an avocado sharpening my molars. Finally the meat was ready and I held the hot meat in my talons. I never ate cooked meat in a long time. I licked it. ''Salty! ''then I started chewing. "What type of meat is this?" I asked. "Boar. We found some wild ones on this island." Crocodile replied. I ate it all greedily until my stomach was full. "Is there any clean water sources?" I asked, feeling my parched mouth. "No, all of them are contaminated, even the streams." I sighed and picked up a rock and started sucking on it. Soon the scientists went back to their research and gave me the news. The RainWing who's name was Python was a very old RainWing and was son of Lime and Canopy who were my grandmother's friends. He was a botanist and told me the affect it would have on the Seaweed and that if eaten it can cause respiratory problems and it kills many fish and mammals including dolphins and whales who eat the fish. I frowned, knowing that this didn't sound like good news. Python said that it'll stay in the plants for a long time maybe months or years. He didn't know. Sulfur came with his siblings saying that at this rate the ecosystem will be barren and will start to come back to normal taken a few years when the fungus is gone. The grumpy IceWing named Polar who was in charge of Tribe Relations said that there was a place which IceWings can let the SeaWings stay off their icy shores. He said that there's some fish and seals which we can eat. I didn't like the idea but I kept it in mind. I dismissed the IceWing rather quickly since he had nothing to do with science. The SkyWing and SandWing were both chemists and said that the water is pretty deadly even without the red matter inside. All this news made me sick and worry for my kingdom. I was the Queen and this was nature. How can I prevent this? I went over Polar's idea and knew that it would be sound if we can move somewhere for a few years and came back. Morning. Sardine was sick. We took him back to the palace and I was surprised to see the Red Tide expand so much in one day. The current was taking it directly to us. The other scientists went back to their territory and Sulfur stayed behind to talk. "Mako, I'm sorry that you have to have this burden." "Huh, I know." ''What? He called me Mako? No Queen Mako? ''I tried to just ignore it. "Python told me that the SeaWings can go near the Rain Forest kingdom. There's plenty of reefs and they will let you say in the forest." "Yeh, Polar told me that we can also stay in the Ice Kingdom but I don't think that'll be good. Our best choice for an evacuation would be the Rain Forest since there' better food sources. IceWings need their food as much as us and RainWings are vegetarians allowing us to eat more food." "Agreed." Sulfur said sadly. "Well... erm... see you later?" I nodded at him seeing his sadness made me want to wail out and cry but I was a Queen and I shall not do that in public. We stared at each other and he said, "Whatever happens you know that... me... and my siblings will be with you." I smiled, "Thank you Sulfur." Finally the MudWing waved his wing at me and flew off into the dawn. Shrimp and Tsunami were looking at him sadly as he was taken to the Summer Palace. Sardine was coughing out crimson blood his scales were turning into a sickly dark red color. My healers lead by Snook the caring SeaWing healer. We've been friends for years. Snook told the other healers to take Tsunami and Shrimp outside. The two were wailing horrendously and I tried not to yell at them to shut up. "Holy fish heads." Snook said smiling at me. "Those two can cry!" I smiled back not as enthusiastic as him . He bent over to Sardine and said, "It's alright there. We'll take care of you." A RainWing was also a healer and was a pro at making dragons go to sleep with his injections. Soon Sardine was asleep and Snook started putting a tube down his throat. I tried not to gag as if Snook was putting a tube down my throat. "Your majesty, you can go now." "Alright." We quickly touched noses and I left. I was confronted with Tsunami. "Your majesty, will he be alright?" Mako nodded a little bit whipped out from all this mumbo jumbo. (Sugarcane Pillar) I flew out into the dawn stretching her wings in the morning light. Maybe I should play a game of chess to get rid of her worries. I flew over to a chess game with the guards and played with them. I was bad at chess and always got rid of my pawns right away. I soon got bored and left. I flew to the library and read a scroll about bess sushi to eat. Then I was hungry and went to the kitchen in the Summer Palace where I ate some raw fish. Finally Snook was done. I flew into the room where Sardine was located. Blood coated his scales and his eyes glazed open. I knew he was dead. At first I didn't feel any pity but then thought about my tribe, with this small exposer to the Red Tide they can all die even a strong dragon like Sardine. "Snook, what should I do?" I asked in a small whisper. "I don't know." I hugged him, feeling dull and empty on the inside. TWO DAYS LATER. That was when it hit the first SeaWing village. I knew that it would hit the Sea Palace soon and we were busy evacuating. I couldn't talk to anyone and my royal subjects did the work for me. They seemed to know what to do. Queen Tamarin of the RainWings visited me and told me that they are welcome to be in the reefs near the Rain Kingdom. "It might spread to the Rain Kingdom." I reminded Queen Tamarin. "No it won't my scientist said that is has a 10 percent chance of reaching there. I nodded, still feeling really depressed. The Red Tide hit before we were prepared. I was in my coral garden one day when all of a sudden a SeaWing dashed beside me. "''Wait, what?" ''I flashed in aquatic. "''The Red Tide! It's coming!" '' ''"No..." I swam around the castle helping evacuate the SeaWings. "Your majesty, you must come!" Puffer signed. "Where's Shrimp and Tsunami?" "Off fishing. They won't be coming back soon." "I must warn them" "Why?" "I owe them a favor with the death of Sardine." '' ''"I understand. Be safe your majesty." I nodded and headed off into the direction of the current which took SeaWings to the hunting grounds. I swam as fast as I can and the current took me faster with my tail strokes. After a few minuets I saw the hunting party with Tsunami teaching Shrimp how to catch fish. "All of you! We're evacuating!" '' "It's here?" ''Tsunami asked and hugged Shrimp. '' "''Yes and we need to get out of here and go to land." I started swimming up to the surface of the water but to my dismay it was red as blood. "No no no no no" ''I dimly flashed. "''We need to take the current." ''I swam back to the current and we all dashed back toward clear ocean which we can fly to safety. I was in front of everyone that was why I got hit first. I didn't see the wall of algae in front of it and went rolling into the red mess. I quickly saw Tsunami get out of the current before she got in along with the other hunting dragons. I swallowed the water and tried to spit it out of my gills, but it was no use. ''Air, air... fresh air. ''I swam to the surface and splashed out screeching from fear. "Mako Mako!" I heard Tsunami. My heart was pounding so much and my eyes were stinging from the particles. I was so scared that I feinted when the hunting party came to me. Unknown. I opened my eyes on the beach. Sand caked my scales. "Er... what happened?" I asked crookedly. "You swam into the Red Tide, we found an opening in the water and went out. You feinted and had a concussion." I looked around and saw Snook. Suddenly my stomach trembled and I barfed out water and red particles. "That's good... good..." Snook said patting me. I was exhausted. Feeling terrible. I shriveled up into a ball and fell asleep. I woke up in the Rain Forest Kingdom. Some RainWings were standing over me. I felt sick mostly because I was scared of what will happen. I didn't have any daughters. But... I did have a sister. "Snook?" Snook came over quickly. "I want you to call in Tempest." "No no... Mako, you'll be alright." "Just... in case." "Fine..." Tempest came with a sad look on her face, but I knew she wasn't sad. I sat up a little bit sore from the barfing. "Tempest, I want you to take my place... until I get better." Tempest gave a slight smile which quickly went back to a sad look. "Alright." She tried to say with no emotion. My sister tried too hard sometimes. "Anyway, I'm hungry." I tried to say happily. Snook seemed to know I was faking it but brought out some fruit. "Snook, I know you're busy." I said after eating a banana. "You should go these guys will take care of me." I said smiling at the other healers. They smiled back. "But... but Mako." "Please Snook, I know you care for me but there are other casualties." He nodded and went off. Noon. A few days later I started feeling the affects which Sardine felt. One was that I smelled horrible and most of the healers avoided me and two my scales started to turn into a sickly red color. I felt terrible and it was getting hard to breath and move. Queen Tamarin visited me a couple times but couldn't stand the smell and left. I was surprised when Sulfur came by himself. "Mako?" He asked. "Hey, Sulfur... why are you here?" "News went around Pyrriah that the SeaWing Queen is sick. I wanted to see you... you know... if..." "Shut up, I'm not going anywhere!" I smiled, trying to look happy. Sulfur sat beside me and pulled out something out of a bag. "I brought you something." I looked to see him carrying cooked meat. "Oh goody!" I said. But before I could grab the meat my lungs jolted and I couldn't breath. In panic I started scratching the hut's floor. "Mako? Are you okay?" "B-b-bring Snook!" I hissed through clenched teeth. I gulped some air before the spasms came again. "Let's bring her into a pool of water." Snook said and I felt myself get carried into the air. I opened my eyes to see that I was in a small pool of freshwater. I tried breathing in my gills and it worked. I tasted blood in the water but was so relieved to breath that I just closed my eyes and laid in the pool. My throat was still burning and my lung hurt but I can breath. How? I didn't know. Night. Snook woke me up. I opened my eyes to see him laying in the pool with me. "''You okay?" ''He asked. I nodded. I was feeling horrible. ''"Your gills are better than your lungs. That's the problem we had with Sardine. We tried putting a tube through his throat to let the air go in, but it was his lungs that were the problem." '' I held my breath. "''Will my lungs be alright?" '' "I'm not sure, maybe after sometime we might be able to take the fluids out and all the toxins out of your bloodstream but for right now it's not safe. I think breathing with your lungs will be the best solution." ''I nodded watching the little fish swim by my face. '' "''Where's Sulfur?" "He went back home." He was so nice to me, I didn't want him to go home soon. I wished he was beside me right now. I looked at Snook, but he was gone. Loneliness crept into me and all I did was sleep. Morning. A few days later and my lungs didn't seem to get better. Snook was talking about a process they can do to get rid of the fluid. The toxins started going away though and I was starting to feel a little less sore. I swam around the pool a little bit to excursive my muscles. Puffer came to me, "Your majesty. Queen Tamarin needs to talk to you." ''I nodded and stuck my head out of the water, but with my gills still inside. "Glad you're feeling better, your majesty." Tamarin said. "Thanks" "I know that you still don't feel too well, but you need to leave the rainforest soon. My dragons are complaining about your kind and that you're taking too much space." "I understand. We'll leave as soon as-" "You'll leave now." "What?" "Yes, I'm giving you land to set your tribe near our shores. It's only a few minuets flight." ''A few minuets without air? "I understand." I then started to get out of the water. Puffer went to my side and Snook tried to help me up. The gravity seemed to weight heavy on me and I finally took a breath with my lungs. I didn't want to embarrase Tamarin but I had to cough. Out came red blood which splattered onto her talons. "Ugh, disgusting!" "Your majesty, she can't help it." "JUST GO!" She said angrily and showed her fangs. I felt so embarrassed and I knew I still stunk of that strange toxin. "That algae bloom was way out of the norm." I heard someone say and saw Python come beside me. "I know what happened." "I don't want to hear it." ''I said in aquatic and kept on walking. "What did she say?" He asked to Puffer. "She said she doesn't want to hear about it." "No please, this might be interesting news." Python flapped his wings but tripped over a branch. "Mako! Your majesty... wait, this is the biggest algae bloom EVER recorded. I think I know why. Some RainWing scouts went off to the islands and saw that on the Mushroom island where the spores were, there were NightWing!" ''NightWings? Huh, I'm guessing what he's going to say now. "And I believe they have been doing their experiments." Yep, I was correct. "I actually saw them. They were talking about something called a fertilizer which is high in Biomolecules which created the major growing of the algae. They were doing that stupid experiment!" I nodded still a little bit dizzy. "Let's talk about this when I'm better." '' "Huh?" "She said to leave, squid brain." Python looked sadly at me and left. I felt kind of bad but was too tired to tell Puffer off. "''How long till we get there?" "Well at this rate a long time." Puffer said. '' "Why don't you ride on my back Mako?" Snook asked. "''Really?" "Yes! I'm strong." Snook said smiling. I smiled back and crawled onto his back smacking off a few beetles on his back. "Let's go!" Snook said happily and we flew off into the sky. My wings limply hung on my back and I was so scared that Snook would fall out of the sky but he was much bigger than me and was strong. The Rain Forest was beautiful! I never seen anything like it. The colors everywhere! Snook smiled at me and I hugged him. These past few days were so chaotic but Snook was always there to help me. Afternoon. We arrived at the reef. Many SeaWings were already making their homes and I was glad that many were smiling and happy. Sadly, not all of the SeaWings escaped the Red Tide. Puffer told me that most of the Royal dragons have lived but he didn't know about he other village SeaWings. "Hopefully, they found an island." ''I nodded. Even I was concerned for those "Lowly SeaWings" My grandfather, Shearwater was one until he married Clam. Clam taught her daughters and son not to underestimate them and they were still dragons. Lapis told me and Tempest to forget about it when one of us becomes Queen but I wanted to care for all of my dragons. "''Puffer, can you take some search teams to scout the islands?" '' ''"Yes, right away." I swam to a part of the reef with some guards following me and fell asleep even though it wasn't night. My body these days seemed to be tired a lot. Night. I woke up a starving so I went and started fishing. I didn't catch a lot since the fish were sleeping or hiding from these strange visitors. I decided to poke my head out of the water to see the moonlight. Soon my head came out and I saw the three moons shining brightly. For a few minuets I floated looking at them. Rustle, rustle '' I turned my head to the shore to see Sulfur. "Sulfur?" I said, but it sounded more like a frog's croak. "Mako! Oh my, you're alright! Snook told me to get out of there, so I did." "Wait, I thought he said that Sulfur went home." ''"Why not with siblings?" I said with short words since my throat wasn't feeling too good. "Oh, well... they... they just... um... didn't want to come." "Why are you here?" "To see you, of coarse." Thankfully my scales were still raw red so he couldn't see me blush. "Me?" "Yes you, you're the Queen of the SeaWings. I wanted to see if you are okay. You're okay right? No jelly fish sting you or something?" I tried to laugh but all that came out was a hoarse coughing noise. "I'm fine." "You also forgot your meat." He started to go into the water and I swam back a little bit. "Here" He held out a chunk of meat and we smiled, sharing the piece and talking under the moonlight... THE END Category:Fanfictions (Completed) Category:Content (QueenClam) Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)